WEYDA – EUROSOLE

About WEYDA

WEYDA, was set up by a group of young people from the west end of Newcastle, who were passionate about graphic design, drawing, cartoons and filming. Last year, they developed a film about their West End Heroes, which they developed cartoon characters for. Since the West End Heroes project, they are in the process of forming a young enterprise and they are now using their new skills to do commissioned pieces of work. The campaign they are currently working on is about Loan Sharks in their community. WEYDA is open to everyone from the age of 11 to 17, who has a passion for design, drawing, animation and filming. If you would to get involved please contact us.

What We Are Doing Now

Our West End Young Digital Artists are branching out, beyond the border of their home town to shores afar in Belgium, Finland and Ireland!

They are taking part in an European project called EUROSOLE.

SOLE stands for Self-Organised Learning Environment, a theory that was developed by Sugata Mitra, following his experiment of putting a computer in a wall in the slums of Calcutta and leaving it there to see what would happen. This was called ‘the Hole in the Wall’-experiment. It proved that the community organised themselves, starting with the children first, and taught themselves English and computer skills.

What we do at Success4All is creating a relaxed learning environment and this fits in very well with the SOLE.

The EUROSOLE-project will study and experiment with self-organised learning environments in Ireland, Belgium, England and Finland and come up with experiences and knowledge of each other and share it via a website www.myeurosole.eu and via social media. There will be virtual meetings as well as face-to-face meetings. In October 2016, our WEYDA-group will meet in Ireland with the young people involved from Ireland, Belgium and Finland. In October 2017, they will meet in Finland and in October 2018, they will meet in Belgium!!

We will be experimenting with how self-organised learning environments engage young people into learning for themselves and each partner will be experimenting with certain subjects and skills.

Success4All and the WEYDA-group will be experimenting with teaching themselves DIGITAL SKILLS and with teaching themselves a FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

Over the summer holidays, we trialled a few SOLE sessions and solved the following Big Questions and Big Challenges around Digital Skills and Foreign Language learning.

How many ways can you come up with to make money, just using the internet? You can’t include sale of physical goods.

You are working for Microsoft. You have been tasked to make Windows 10 easier to use for customers.

Imagine you are stuck in a Paris metro, just after the bombing. What language would you need to get back to your hotel?

How can we learn a language together?

Watch this space for further reports or register with www.myeurosole.eu to be kept informed about the project.

Our Previous Work.

WEYDA have just finished making their ‘Young, Religious and Judged living in the West End’ documentary. In the film we watch the WEYDA group explore their feelings, along with the views and thoughts of other young people from different religious faith groups living in the area, while undergoing a multi-faith social action project of their choosing. The idea came about through a discussion, where the group spoke of the negatives of living in the West End and the stereotypes that are associated. They found relief and positive role models in their religious communities, but because of this they were made to feel isolated and discriminated against.

Often young people are seen as, ruthless, rebellious and disengaged from their communities. Social action projects help disadvantaged young people to engage with their communities, while also developing the skills needed to succeed in education and training. The newly formed young religious group will explore their area through the eyes of those striving to better it. They will visit organisations such as the police, social workers, ward councillors, homeless shelters and youth clubs.

Gallery

Young Religious and Judged, living in the West End Documentary

Our 2012 Work

The Documentary – West End Heroes

Published on Nov 27, 2012

A film made by young people from the West End of Newcastle.

BBC Radio Interviews with the WEYDA-Group

Who would you consider your hero? You might imagine a bunch of children in Newcastle would choose the latest X Factor finalist or actor as their hero…but not in the West End of Newcastle.

Success4All is a social enterprise set up by a lady called Caroline Afolabi. She’s from a mixed background herself and has come to feel at home in the diverse cultures on offer in Scotswood, Benwell and Elswick.

The children she works with have created a film about their West End heroes. It’s all about people in their community who’ve done something amazing: